Pleasantries
by AnHeiressofaSOLDIER
Summary: Starting with Beat and Rhyme waiting for their food outside of Ken Doi's, Rhyme begins to notice something off with the people and world around her. Could it be one of Joshua's gambits? Rhyme thinks so. But why do Neku and Shiki seem to be in on it? And why does Rhyme think that despite all the bad things that the Composer's done, that he somehow has her best interests at heart?


**Pleasantries **

"Rhyme, do you mind telling me why you must always whistle so annoyingly to yourself?"

Oddly enough, it wasn't Joshua who asked such a rude question, Rhyme found, as she sat outside of Ken Doi's—waiting for the man to bring out the to-go order that she'd placed, seeing as how it was far too cramped to even think about going inside—but her brother, Beat.

Idly, as she ignored Beat's weird behavior and waited and waited and waited, the blonde found herself thinking over things that she could possibly do to help Ramen Don' situation… and here she'd thought that she'd lost her Fee in the Games. But in some ways, it seemed like Joshua had been kind and had given them back to her for whatever reason.

What was not kind, however, was the way that Beat was acting, Rhyme supposed. She tried to take it all in stride, because he was her brother and she loved him, but as it happened... Rhyme found herself wondering if maybe Joshua had made Beat lose the growth of character that he'd gotten during the Game or something like that.

…Or maybe he'd just made everyone out to get her today, the ex-Player thought worriedly, upon noting all the weird stares and glares she was getting. She hadn't been humming that loudly, had she?

"I- I'm sorry," the girl was quick to splutter out—sinking further down against the wall of the building, when some bicyclists chose that moment to race through the street and nearly kill her in the process. "Gosh, I didn't know that my whistling was that bad, but... I'll stop if I'm really putting everyone on edge. I guess... I just couldn't see the forest for the trees. Sorry."

And though her words were true, and she did feel bad about her tone-deaf abilities displeasing everyone, Rhyme found that she felt hurt more than anything else. In fact, it was such that Rhyme's first thought was to worry about her own feelings, instead of catering for other people's needs for a change. And that fact was so odd and terrible for her, that Rhyme found she wanted to scream.

_Best- best to make sure I have my Player Pin on_, Rhyme quickly told herself, as she realized another horror that could be occurring during her odd behavior. _I don't want the Composer hearing my anguished thoughts and to think that he was right about everyone only caring about themselves_. And thus, Rhyme was quick to pull her old Pin out of her pocket and to place it under her beanie for safekeeping.

Beat seemed to raise an eyebrow at that, Rhyme realized from the corner of her eye, but otherwise he said nothing. For that, Rhyme was just about to try to strike up a conversation with him, to see what was eating him, when something ended up happening.

"Yo, Rhyme. You order this? I was just coming outside with Shiki when I heard Dr. Tin Pin call out the name 'Daisukenojo', and- well, to be quite frank, there's only one person this could be for, then."

Never in all her life had Rhyme wanted to hug or thank Neku more than she did in that moment. Him, and the Mr. Mew carrying Shiki, of course, who—as it happened—Rhyme strongly believed had been the one to insist that they pick up the Bito's order for them.

Bowing at Neku and Shiki happily and enthusiastically, Rhyme quickly began pulling out the contents within the plastic bag and gave the different foods to Beat and herself respectively.

She also made sure to offer some of it to Neku and Shiki, of course—partly because Beat was acting really weird at the moment and had hurt her feelings, so her two friends had proven a nice distraction—but if she'd expected Neku to be happy that she'd offered him her biggest piece of chicken, she would have been disappointed.

Quickly passing on the offer, the former emo pulled out his headphones from where he kept them in his school bag, and then exchanged a look with Shiki.

"Oh... I get it," Rhyme said at last; as she eyed the Lapin Angelique bag in Shiki's hands—and noted how the company had started to using girls whose legs were so thin, that they looked like chicken wings—whilst Neku looked everywhere else. "Neku's trying to be a rebel again, and so's pretending he doesn't like eating something that slightly looks like the picture on this product. Is that it, Shiki?"

And... apparently it wasn't—because even though Shiki looked at Rhyme with warm and understanding in her eyes, as the quartet began walking to find a bench where they could all sit at—Beat ended up snorting and laughing so loudly, that Rhyme was frankly surprised he didn't suffocate.

He looked her over with the oddest expression in his eyes, she found, before he began walking closer to her and pulled her into a one-armed hug. "Oh, Rhyme. You're missing the obvious, but ya tried. Don't ever change."

As it stood—though Rhyme had always tried to never mind when Beat schooled her in something, since it happened so often the other way around that she felt awful for her brother—the blonde girl found that she really didn't like Beat treating her in such a way. It was... too weird and condescending for him. And not for the first time that day, Raimu found herself wondering just what had happened to him...

Neku, seemingly taking pity on Rhyme, as they all began heading west towards A-East—something that all ready seemed to be tiring out Shiki, Rhyme thought, as she noticed the bespectacled girl nearly drop Mr. Mew for the third time—told her, as he flipped a bang out of his face:

"Rhyme, you're too good and kind. And, well- I guess we're worried that people might take advantage of you that way. Or worse: that you'll never be completely happy, because you're always worrying about others. I mean... offering me the most cumbersome part of your meal isn't something you should do, since you're the youngest of us. Not that I don't appreciate the thought, though," the would-be-Conductor assured her, as he turned around for a moment and dropped a smile in her direction—something that Rhyme was quick to return, as she was always glad to let Neku know how much she appreciated him and all that he'd been through to change in the Game.

Even now, he was worrying about her, she thought, mystified. And though Rhyme really didn't buy into what he was saying, she did enjoy the fact that her surrogate older brother was looking out for her... Especially when her actual elder sibling didn't seem like he cared to at the moment.

But proving that he was at least being thoughtful of one person, at least, Beat quickly ran up to where Shiki had gone ahead of the rest of the group—perhaps wanting to head back into Lapin Angelique, maybe?—and just as he reached the sign of the building, so that it dissected his face into shades of peach and gray, he said, "Do you want me to put Mr. Mew in my food container, so you won't have to carry him, Shiki? You seem... tired."

Shiki shook her head at that, and only held the plush cat tighter in response.

As Rhyme paused where she was standing, just in front of the stage (and desperately tried not to think of how 777 and the others had apparently been killed in the exact same spot), she realized that there was something that was really very strange about Beat's offer.

First off... why would Shiki ever want to put Mr. Mew in a container of ramen? Sure, that might have saved her some muscle work in having to lug him around everywhere—and she supposed it was nice of Beat to have asked her, then—but...

Why not just put him in the plastic bag that had come with their food? As it was, Rhyme herself had it in her hand that very moment, so why hadn't Beat suggested that Shiki give Mr. Mew to her? Were they all really trying that hard to keep her from being selfless? And if so, why?

"Oh, by the way," Shiki stated, turning around from the entrance to the... questionable clothes store and locking her eyes on Beat's shoulders. Shoulders that, Rhyme thought, looked far too slumped, from what she could see of them under her brother's tank top. She narrowed her eyes at the thought.

"Beat, I've been meaning to ask you: you've been losing some weight in your arms, so that means the costume I've been making might not fit you anymore. Do you want me to go ahead and take the sleeves in, then, or do you think you'll fill out again before you need it?" Shiki asked with a weird lilt to her voice, and as well as a raised eyebrow.

And whatever she said must have been funny or some sort of code or both, Rhyme realized, aggravated, as Neku let out an incredulous laugh at Shiki's words and landed a particular look onto Beat.

Clearly having had their fun, the two teens disappeared into the boutique without any more shenanigans. Rhyme, however, remained confused as all heck about their previous conversation, and just what she was supposed to do with her brother as they waited outside.

Fortunately for her, Rhyme got her answer soon enough, as Beat scratched at his bare wrist and let out a bored huff. There was only one person she knew who would do that sort of fidgeting.

Her eyes filling up with pure hatred—something of which she tried to not let show, as she finally figured out everything that was happening—Rhyme moved as lithely as a cat, as she whirled on Beat—no, Joshua—and smacked him into the wall angrily.

Later on, Rhyme would thank every god she knew that she hadn't broken anything with the force of her action—and that no one in Lapin Angelique seemed none the wiser to her violent display—but not at the current moment.

"You!" Rhyme let out exasperated—wondering just what the Composer was testing her about this time and if he might put her into another week of hell, like he had Neku. "Why are you- Composer, sir..."

Suddenly deciding that maybe she'd get more answers from the aloof boy, if she acted the way he would want her to, Rhyme tried to remember her usual persona (the one she had when she wasn't dealing with murdering psychopaths), as she asked with true terror: "Why- why are you pretending to be my brother? He's okay, right? I mean- nothing's happened to him... And you'd tell me if something had, right? So to that end—do you need something from me, maybe?"

What Rhyme had really meant to ask was if Joshua enjoyed messing with her, but she chose to believe that the god of Shibuya must have had better things to do, than to antagonize a young girl for no reason. She wasn't a hundred percent sure on that, though…

Reaching his hands out towards her—to attack her or push her away, Rhyme didn't know, since she ended up moving away from him first; she hadn't exactly wanted to be touched by her "brother's" hands, thank you very much—Joshua told her with far too much mirth, as he giggled and pulled the imitation beanie down further onto his head (was he—was he mocking her for having tried to hide her thoughts from him earlier?):

"For one who dreams of people actually listening to the cries of this world, you sure don't pay attention much yourself do you, Raimu? I all ready told you. Or moreover, Neku and Shiki told you that we're worried you're far too selfless. And thus, we're acting to make you less so. You give awful people way too many chances to do awful things _to_ you, no less, so I'm going to remove that issue from you. If you'd survived longer in my Game, you probably would have become wiser about things yourself, but... I supposed drastic times call for drastic measures, eh?"

"That still doesn't explain why you look like Beat," Rhyme argued with slumped shoulders and a tired look to her face, as she fought the urge to scream and run for the hills, so that Joshua couldn't experiment on her and her emotions or whatever it was he planned on doing.

That seemed to wake Joshua up. As he pulled away from Rhyme instantly, the girl noted that he was looking her over with searching eyes, before he flipped a strand of hair out of his face irritably and responded, "Because your dear brother wanted to help you not be a victim, of course, but he himself realized that he could never condemn you for being a good person. So I took up the mantle and became his moral support to you for him. Really, Rhyme, you're much too smart. Now you've ruined my entire plan, and I'm afraid that Beat will be very cross with me when he finds out."

_Some moral support_... Rhyme thought, agitated, as she remembered how much of a jerk Joshua had been being to her all day. At least she now had the knowledge that it hadn't been Beat behaving that way, of course, but...

And since when had Neku, Shiki, Josh, and Beat become so chummy? Rhyme thought savagely. She may have been selfless in a lot of ways, as Joshua had put it, but she didn't think that she ever would have been able to forgive someone who had killed her twice.

"Since when... since when do you care about me? I mean, don't get me wrong, Joshua; it is better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all—so I'm glad you seem to be opening yourself up more to people... but I can't help but find the entire situation really strange. Though I guess gods sometimes do work in mysterious ways, huh?"

To be honest, Rhyme hated the idea of referring to Joshua as a god. Sure he was the god of death, the Composer, but she'd always thought that if other gods existed, they would have had more tact, composure, and kindness. As it stood, Joshua had none of those things.

But at least he was trying to do right by her and her brother both in his own weird way, Rhyme supposed. She had no idea why that was occurring, exactly, but she supposed it was a start.

She didn't- she didn't like having such hatred in her heart for someone, after all, so if there was a way she could get rid of the feeling, Rhyme knew she'd take up anything that she had to.

Not that Joshua was exactly worthy of forgiveness, Rhyme thought. He'd been unpleasant almost every time that she'd met him so far, but still.

"The question you should be asking yourself, dearest Rhyme," Joshua answered, before using his powers to revert back to his normal appearance—and Rhyme thought she might have been looking at him far too intently, as the white pearls began dancing around him so as to change his form. "Is when have I _not_ been interested in you?" Joshua continued on, just as Rhyme saw shades of blue, gray, and violet behind the vale that he'd covered himself in, before it dissipated.

She particularly tried not to note the sharpness of his eyes that seemed to be begging for companionship, as he once again walked over to her and lifted her chin up with his index finger.

At once Rhyme wanted to pull away from the contact, but for whatever the reason... something stopped her. It was the same feeling that seemed to wash over her when she saw a homeless person in need, or a stray kitten in need of love, or even when she knew she had to motivate Beat somehow. Joshua needed her help, didn't he? And though Rhyme didn't completely trust him or his flawed moral compass, she knew that she would never turn someone down who sought her help.

"We're in— we're in the UG now, aren't we? You switched Planes without me realizing it?" Rhyme asked partially to get him to pull away from her and to stop looking in her eyes for something he'd never find—Neku's Soul looking kindly back at him—and partly because she had realized it to be true.

She should have known, she supposed. After all, with all the people milling past them, at least one of them would have bumped into them by now if they were corporeal. What she couldn't put her finger on, however, was how she wasn't fading away in the Noise realm without a partner. Had Joshua messed with her Soul to make sure that she'd be fine? Or had he, perhaps, made a Pact with her without her consent?

Honestly, Rhyme didn't know which one of those possible outcomes scared her more and she was afraid to find the answer—in fact, she was even thinking about running into Lapin Angelique to beg Neku and Shiki for help, thank heavens for Reaper decals—but she would find out, anyway.

"Why? Why, Joshua?!" Rhyme demanded, fighting the urge to latch onto the boy's arm to get his attention. "What are you after? Why are you doing this to me? Wh- hey!"

One of these days, she was going to get used to Joshua trying to get points across to her, the ex-Player told herself, annoyed. For whatever the reason, as she'd been rambling at him—reacting like any normal person would be in her situation—Joshua had stuck his foot out to trip the poor girl, so that she crashed into one of the telephone booths adjacent to her.

So it wasn't enough that he was trying to tell her that she was too good now, but he was also trying to drive home the fact that her shorts—the one loop at the bottom of each leg—was a safety hazard, too. Just what was his problem? What was-

"Do you believe in reincarnation, Raimu?" Joshua asked far too pleasantly and innocently, as he once again reached out to Rhyme and pulled her to his side, from where he'd somewhat knocked her over just a moment ago.

In the back of her mind, Rhyme remembered Neku once having told her that Yoshiya Kiryu didn't like to be touched. So what was with this one, then, who kept throwing her around like a beanbag? Rhyme thought with a grumble, as she purposefully tried to ignore the Composer's question to her, so as to not give him what he wanted.

But... that would be a problem, wouldn't it? Rhyme realized, just as a bird flew overhead and a beautiful brown and white feather went through her instead of landing on her. If she didn't win whatever Game Joshua was playing at, she might never get out of the UG and back to the real world.

Which was... so much like the nightmare that Neku had lived in for those three weeks that Rhyme found that she wanted to cry for both of them.

"Of course I believe in it, Joshua," Rhyme insisted, putting on a brave face, as she leaned down to try and reach the fallen feather: in hopes that she'd be able to pick it up and the whole scenario around her would just prove to be a terrible nightmare or something. Sadly, there were no dice. "That's how you brought us all back to life, isn't it? Which... I am grateful for."

_That and more_, Rhyme reasoned about telling him. _You... you didn't have to bring me back to life with my dreams in tact, so thanks for that, Composer, sir. Really, you didn't have to bring me back to life at all, but you did_...

_Oh, god. Why is your face lit up like you're about to burn a house down for kicks_? Rhyme wondered, just as Joshua strode away from her with a far too amused look on his face, and then headed in the direction of the Scramble.

Following him regretfully, because she didn't want to have a bazillion people walk through her again like last time she'd been there, Rhyme was just about to ask the mysterious boy if he'd somehow read her thoughts or something, and that was why he seemed so oddly flattered, but she changed her mind the moment that he randomly stopped in front of her...

Which led her to crashing her nose into his back. Nope. Natta. Not gonna happen. She wasn't going to thank the person who had just made her get a nosebleed. Nope. Knowing him, he could probably fill up the silence that her annoyance provided, anyway.

And as he turned to look down at Rhyme with a breathtaking smile and apologetic eyes, he did just that. "Fair enough, Raimu. But I'm talking more about being different people in other lives. Do you believe in that?"

_I might have said "yes" before you decided to dress up like my brother and give me thoughts that I don't want to think about_, Rhyme was thinking, before some idiot chose that moment to try and drive a car over a crosswalk.

For one horrified moment, Rhyme wondered if the poor pedestrians before her were about to die and enter the Game with her—had that been Joshua's plan all along?—but as the boy turned into his Composer form before she could even realize what her eyes were seeing, it all ended up being a non-issue.

Picking up the car like he was Superman, Joshua carried it over to where it was meant to be going, before he turned to Rhyme with a look on his face that read "if you're going to say one word about me usually being tired, because I'm secretly a superhero and do things like this on a regular basis, I'm gonna flay you alive".

And so as to not send the current god before her on the warpath, Rhyme kept her mouth shut and tried to pretend that she _didn't _just see Joshua be a hero... even if it was giving her feelings that she really didn't know what to do with.

How ironic it was, though, that in chewing her out about being kindness, that Joshua had proven to be the most unselfish out of the both of them. Rhyme wasn't a Reaper, of course, but she doubted very much that she would have had the courage to try such a thing, even if she might have had the powers to try and avert the situation. She would have been too scared to even attempt it.

For that reason more than anything, Rhyme gave Joshua the answer he'd been wanting to hear, as she looked down at her feet uncomfortably, and ignored his change back into the boy she knew. "I guess... I guess it's possible. I've never given it too much thought, Joshua, but if you recode Souls to bring us back... I guess it's not too much of a stretch to think that that's how new life is made, too. Why do you ask?"

"Because you're going to end up ruining your chances at life, like you always do," Joshua answered cryptically, coming over to link his arm with hers again. And even if Rhyme knew she'd be writing in her diary later how weird it had been that the Composer had kept wanting to reassure himself with her presence that day, Rhyme found that it wasn't entirely unpleasant.

To be honest, it actually felt familiar somehow. Of course, Rhyme knew that Joshua had held her Soul delicately in his hands, as he'd extracted it from the Pin and had given it new life, but she couldn't help thinking that it was more than that, too.

How... completely, completely strange. And what was even more bizarre… was that she was starting to like the Composer, when she'd been so sure of her disdain for him earlier in the day.

"You know… you know I really don't know what you're talking about, Joshua," Rhyme said, as she tried to stand up on her tiptoes to see him better. "What? Are you implying that my apparent kindness is going to lead me into a situation that keeps me from being reborn in the future? Is that what this is about? And if so... how does that even happen?"

Acting as though she'd stuck a sword into his armor and had knocked the different pieces of it to shreds, Joshua ran away from Rhyme farther out into the Scramble. And usually, Rhyme would have left it alone. After all, it was irritating that one who usually was against physical exercise was making _her_ chase after _him_, when he was the one who had wanted her there.

But since she'd seen the look in his eyes—vulnerable instead of angry, like she would have expected—Rhyme steeled her resolve and chased after the young boy.

Rhyme felt... somehow she felt as though she'd chased after the childish Joshua before, but that wasn't possible, was it? And why was she thinking of him like he was the child? He was- he was the one older than her, after all... Or so she thought. It was hard to tell with his powers, exactly, as Rhyme reasoned he could make himself appear however he wanted to.

"Joshua?" Rhyme asked tentatively, once again feeling an odd caring for Joshua making itself known in her heart. "Will you… will you just tell me what's going on, and give me a straight answer for once, please?"

Of course by asking Joshua such a question, Rhyme knew that she was pretty much telling him to do the opposite of what she wanted and to keep talking in circles. And thus, Rhyme was more than a little surprised when the Composer fessed up to what was happening and what he was doing, perhaps the first time in his life.

"The truth, Raimu, as creepy as it sounds… is that during one of your Games in a parallel universe, you and Neku's Souls seemed to get a little messed up when I tried to recode them. And therefore, in the realities that were created after that fact, you sometimes are very Neku like or he is very much like you. I tried to sort it all out for the both of you, but I'm afraid it was even beyond my hands, as it was something that never should have occurred in the first place. But… during it all, if I were to say one good thing had happened because of it, it would be that I grew quite fond of you, Rhyme. Until you go and ruin it, of course."

_So what you're telling me_, Rhyme found herself wishing to say, but keeping her mouth clamped down over the words, in fear of what the truth they'd bring about… _Is that you came to care for me because I'm part Neku? I always thought that you might have had feelings for him, but this situation is far direr__than I would have anticipated. Who would have thought that the feelings I sensed in you for me would end up being about another person entirely? But then again, I was stupid to think differently in the first place._

"If all you're saying is true…" Rhyme began, as she pulled her Player Pin out from underneath her hat and flipped it up into the air—trying to see if she could hear Neku and Shiki's thoughts, to see if they missed her yet… "Then that must mean you're a Joshua from one of those other worlds, huh? Even with your foresight, I can't imagine you ever knowing all of those details if you hadn't lived it all yourself. Besides… the Joshua from this place never seemed to like me much. So I assumed that something had to be up with how you were treating me today. I mean… you're not really him, are you?"

Cue Joshua taking that moment to return them both to the RG and to usher Rhyme to the Statue of Hachiko—so she'd hopefully be safe from the passing cars there, she guessed—before he kissed her on the forehead and left. Even after the fact, his words about how the Joshua of this world needed her more than she knew, and how she needed to safeguard her precious Soul, rang in her ears and in her heart.

…

That night, Rhyme couldn't sleep. She knew she needed to, seeing as how she had exams the next day at school—and if she didn't do well, Beat would worry about her all the more, the blonde knew well—but she couldn't help thinking back to her weird day with the other Joshua and what it all could have meant.

Once upon a time, she wouldn't have believed his words at all, as she'd never been a believer in the String Theory, but after having played the Reaper's Game, Rhyme had learned that there really were phenomenons in the world that no one could explain.

One of which was the fact that Joshua had brought her back to life when he hadn't needed to, and even seemed tied to her in some way, but even more confusing than all of that: the fact that Rhyme found herself being so invested in him lately, despite her previous irritations toward him. Though she knew now that she must have gotten some things wrong about him in the past, if he really had tried so hard to help her and Neku's Souls in another place…

Deciding that sleep apparently wasn't going to come to her of its own violation, Raimu Bito dictated that maybe it would be best to just take some sleeping pills, and to see if that would lull her to sleep.

Leaving her navy blue room and padding down the stairs as noiselessly as she could, Rhyme quickly found herself in the kitchen at the foot of the stairs. So tired was she, though, that she didn't even notice that someone else was in the room, until she was pulling the pill bottle from the brown cabinet on the other side of the room.

"Yo, Rhyme. U ain't sleepin', either?"

"Oh. Hi, Beat," Rhyme beamed. Quickly pulling the chair opposite him out from under the yellow table, Rhyme sat down tiredly before she continued, "Why are you up? You don't happen to be thinking about how you helped Joshua earlier, are you?"

As it was, Rhyme didn't really know where those words had come from. She'd been thinking about it all day, of course, that Beat had had the Composer pretend to be him to try and help her, but she hadn't thought that she'd bring the conversation up in such a casual way. If Beat were anything like her, he'd have questionable thoughts about Joshua's character, too, and-

"Uhh, ya…" Beat responded uncomfortably, as he scratched the top of his head and looked in any direction but at her. "I guess… I guess I am. Prissy said ya ova'work yoself, yo. And I kinda agreed, so… I mean, aren'cha up now 'cause you're doin' a friend's homework for 'em?"

While it was true that Rhyme had stayed up in the past doing such a thing before, she had to laugh about Beat apparently having missed her comment about how she had been thinking about Joshua.

Leaning across the table to poke him on the nose, Rhyme told her brother that, "Hey… I'm not that perfect. Today I'm actually just having trouble sleeping like you are. Besides… I really should stop letting Kaname take the easy way out, seeing as how I'm giving her a fish instead of teaching her to fish and all that." _See?__I'm not_that_much of a go-getter. Kaname isn't going to take advantage of and hurt me if that's what you were thinking… Joshua. So, please. Don't worry Beat about such things in the future. I hate seeing him worry._

"Still," Beat admonished, as he pulled Rhyme's finger from his head and held it against his heart for a moment—Rhyme that about made Rhyme die, as she saw how torn up he still was in having lost her, even though it hadn't been his fault and he had accomplished impossible feats to bring her back. "Ya gotta have mo' fun in life, Rhyme. I dun't wan'cha havin' a stress heart attack of sumthin'. I know you too smart ta be taken advantage of, like Priss thought, but—there are other ways you can be hurt, yo."

"Beat…" Rhyme mumbled, heartfelt, as she thought about pouring Beat some of his favorite cereal, to try and get his mind off things and to make him feel better. And to award him for being the best big brother ever, of course, Rhyme added mentally, with a radiant smile on her face.

In the end, though, Rhyme did no such thing, and just decided to sit with her brother in comfortable silence.

Tomorrow, she wouldn't take her exam, but rather... she would go and see Joshua.

…

"Raimu Bito… Well, I must say that I'm surprised to see you in the Room of Reckoning, dearest. Are you here to try and usurp me, too? No, wait… Your thoughts seem to be indicating something else- Ahh. You met that sappy version of me? How dreadful for you. Especially since I really don't have any feelings for you, so-"

"You can stop the act now, Joshua," Rhyme said with a surprising calm in her voice, as she strode towards Shibuya's protector with her arms outstretched and with a smile on her face.

And in the back of her mind, Rhyme found that she was once again shocked by how she was acting around this terrible, terrible boy. But at the same time… as she had finally figured out just what had occurred the other day, it made perfect sense to her.

Joshua did need her, as she'd realized yesterday. He just hadn't wanted her to know that it had been the him in the current world who was so worried about her, because—as always—he was trying to protect himself.

"I- I spoke with Beat," she clarified upon walking even closer to the boy. And for one moment, as Joshua seemed to completely stiffen up, Rhyme wondered if he'd use his powers to knock her back into the other room with the dreadful Piranha Noise or something, but in the end, Rhyme thought that maybe—just maybe—he'd been trying to protect her Soul by not marring it through close proximity to his all along.

"Oh? And what did the Neanderthal tell you about me, Rhyme? What fantasies did he plant in your head that just aren't true, that would risk you coming here without a Partner?" Rhyme resisted laughing as she further inspected Joshua's face, seeing the telltale sweat that lined it, as he tried desperately to hold onto an act that he couldn't even begin to perform anymore.

Most of all, though, Rhyme was sad that the Composer had chosen to encase himself in lies, like armor. She'd have to work on that, she knew, since apparently Joshua wanted her in his life, and when she told him that she planned to stay, she doubted he'd lie or let her go again.

"He told me not to overwork myself and then, after talking to Neku, I realized two things. The first being that apparently you really can't use the Inter-dimensional Leap in an effective way at all, which… means the person that I met yesterday, was you. But more than that… he told me how you admitted to loathing RG work when you two were Partners. And that- that's what you're trying to save me from, isn't it? My Soul will become dimmed by such a thing, won't it? And as someone who only brings back Souls who will shape the rest of the world in a better way… you don't want that, do you?"

If Rhyme had expected a smile or congratulations from Joshua, upon hitting the nail on the head, she would have been disappointed.

The way he reached forward to caress her cheek wasn't at all bad, though, Rhyme thought, as she leaned into his touch, despite herself.

"Yes, you got me," Joshua said, with what looked like the entire tragedy of the universe written in his eyes. "With my foresight, I see so much of you, Raimu, and what you can be, and… how you can help Shibuya _through_ me, but you're dampening that by becoming a diamond in the rough. The best diamond, that's getting buried so deep within everyday life, that it'll probably never be found again, if I don't act to save it. And as someone who held you, your vibrant Soul, and potential in my hands, I can't allow you to lose your way. So I selfishly ask you now to just fight Noise and sell the loot you get off of them in order to make a living. Don't become another dreg of society, Rhyme."

Yes, the fact of the matter was that Joshua was being very selfish with what he wanted, Rhyme thought as she looked at him with curious eyes. And though there was still a lot she didn't know, and many uncertainties that she had… she remembered Mr. H's words about how people needed to clash and change their worldviews, and thought that maybe that was exactly what they both needed in their lives.

Maybe she could help him to become less selfish, whilst he made her realize things about how she'd really been crippling Kaname's success in trying to help her. Maybe.

Reaching out a hand towards Joshua for him to take, Rhyme asked him, "What do you say about me coming here for a little bit everyday, so that you can check up on me and make sure I'm not losing what I learned from the Game?"

And with a real smile that oddly seemed to fit on the Composer's face—something which made Rhyme want to cry out loud or to love him right then and right there, as it was such a tragedy that he so rarely got to be happy like that—Joshua took Rhyme's hand into his own.

And in that hold, she felt all of their potentials, tomorrows, and promises that they'd found with each other. She saw Joshua not being alone anymore, and Shibuya being a better place for everyone because of that.

Putting one hand on his hip, as he shook Rhyme's hand with the other, Joshua gave her his answer. "I'd like that."

And in the future, they'd like and be so much more with each other, and it would be a bright future, indeed.

**Author's Note: First of all, happy B-day, Liz. Originally, I was going to do you a plethora of stories other than this one for you, but… then I remembered that you drew me a Joshyme fanart last year, so I thought it only appropriate that I returned the Joshyme favor, seeing as how we've bonded over this pairing before. I hope it was to your liking, dearest. Love you:)**

**And holy chocolate starfish, batman. This is the first Joshyme piece that I've written in 5ever. I really ended up liking it, though. It's nice that Joshua's gambit was actually a nice one that benefited someone else for once. Also nice that Joshua making Rhyme less of a goodie-goodie ended up being for the best here.**

**Anyway… this is a weird story. Mainly because I felt like I've done every possible Joshyme story out there, so to change it up, I decided to have Joshua pretend to be Beat with Rhyme at first. XD**

**As for the plot, if you couldn't understand it, here's what happened. So our Joshua from the main TWEWY game (and, yes, it was him the whole time, despite his lies) had a vision of a future where Neku and Rhyme's Souls became intertwined somehow. And as he sees this future, and sees his other self come to care more from them both, so does our Joshua, despite the fact that it hasn't happened in his world and probably never will. **

**He later sees, however, how Rhyme's never resting attitude is going to lead to her Soul being diminished, and so he moves to set that right the only way he knows how. And Shiki, Neku, and Beat were all in on it, btw.**

**(And thank the Lord that for once I actually fit Beat in this and wrote him and Rhyme decently, I think.)**

**By the end of this, as you can tell, Josh and Rhyme sort everything out and have become friends. They might become something more later, but right now they're just friends. I tried to keep this story as canon as I could, which is why I had Joshua's interest in Rhyme start in her Soul becoming similar to Neku's (which is why he brought her back to life, btw, because he saw that potential future). **

**But it's not as creepy, as you all think. It's more like their Souls sort of ended up affecting each other, and Joshua became interested in that clash, and therefore checked into it. So it's not like he's in love with Rhyme because he thinks she's Neku or anything like that. **

**Plus, it's a moot point, because it doesn't even happen to the Neku and Rhyme here (and Josh and Rhyme aren't in love yet). ANYWAY…**

**Hope you all liked this! Especially you, Liz. I sort of tried to make this Beyond the Boundary-esque and I hope I succeeded in that, honey.**

**Be sure to tell me what you guys think. Thanks!**

**-Shanna**

**P.S. There's so much heart clashing and identity confusion in this that it ought to be KH. LOL.**

**P.P.S. I tried to make Rhyme like her KH3D incarnation here…**

**And a virtual cookie goes out to anyone who gets the Mortal Instruments reference in here.**


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